Wednesday, April 01, 2009

A trip through the April 1 news...

British anarchists call for their dole to be paid, not in money, but, apparently, in goods or barter, as they trash a bank chanting "death to money". Getting into the spirit,

some bankers swapped their pinstripe suits for casual wear and others stayed home. Bolder financial workers leaned out their office windows Wednesday, taunting demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.[...]One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light sabre at officers.

Musician and political activist Billy Bragg said the time was now to make a difference.

But Jewish-American academics cast doubt on assertions that we are currently witnessing a rise in antisemitism, though no one can be sure just what words were covered up in duct tape. Readers are invited to lay their bets in comments:

According to a person close to the situation, Obama hasn't yet appointed a chief of protocol and his staffers, still unpacking, didn't realize that the State Department has an entire office dedicated to foreign visits.

You know sometimes we might discount all the evidence that an American president is actively cultivating a fascist-style cult of personality, and then things like this hit you and you have to say: look at the facts!